Analytical Micro-Systems for Personalized Health Monitoring

Electrochemical lab-on-a-chip for neuropsychiatric health management

Schizophrenia is a lifelong mental disorder with few recent advances in treatment. Clozapine is the most effective antipsychotic for schizophrenia treatment. However, it remains underutilized since frequent blood draws are required to monitor adverse side effects, and maintain clozapine concentrations in a therapeutic range. Micro-system technology utilized towards real-time monitoring of efficacy and safety will enable personalized medicine and better use of this medication. Although work has been reported on clozapine detection using its electrochemical oxidation, no in situ monitoring of clozapine has been described. In this work, we present a new concept for clozapine in situ sensing based on amplifying its oxidation current. Specifically, we use a biofabricated catechol-modified chitosan redox cycling system to provide a significant amplification of the generated oxidizing current of clozapine through a continuous cycle of clozapine reduction followed by re-oxidation. The amplified signal has improved the signal-to-noise ratio and provided the required limit-of-detection and dynamic range for clinical applications with minimal pre-treatment procedures. This new biosensing approach can be further developed towards its integration in miniaturized devices for improved personalized mental health care.

Selected Accomplishments:

The first demonstration of an electrochemical lab-on-a-chip for in situ detection of the antipsychotic clozapine

Detection of clozapine in undiluted blood samples of Schizophrenia patients